Beth Poss, M.A., CCC/SLP SPED 646 Towson University

 Universal Design for Learning is based on flexible and multiple modes of engagement, presentation, and expression  Productivity tools such as MS Office enable: ▪ Presentation of materials in multiple ways. ▪ Multiple ways for students to demonstrate learning. ▪ Multiple ways for students to interact and make meaning out of curriculum and materials.

 Is readily available on almost every computer.  Built in features provide flexibility for students and educators.

 Highlight vocabulary words  Highlight the answers  Students use as a learning tool

 Click and drag over the text and select highlight pen.  Hold down CTRL/Shift  use the arrow keys to select text  choose the highlight pen in the toolbar.  Or use View  Toolbars  Reviewing  select highlight pen in toolbar  drag across desired text.

 Or: Go to Home  Find  more  format  font  all “ai” vowel combinations  red 14 pt to help recognize certain vowel combinations

 Highlight word, change the font color.  Change anything throughout the document quickly by double clicking paint brush. It will hold the format.  Select the material by highlighting.  Home  Format Painter  go to new material and “paint over it with the format painter.

 Use font color to emphasize a word or sentence instead of underlining.  Underlining increases decoding difficulties. Scraped changes the visual appearance of the word.

Rationale ▪ Engagement ▪ Text/Background Contrast may be helpful for some students

 To demonstrate a student’s overuse of a word: find and replace the overused word with the same word in a different font color.  To teach strategies to correct the problem have the student find each word and use the synonyms to find an alternative word. right click to bring up Synonym tool

 Increase Font Size tool bar item. Or:  Highlight the text, ALT/Shift and use the greater than or less than signs accordingly.  You can increase the view size of the text on the screen w/o increasing the font.  On the bottom right tool bar increase the percentage in the zoom box.  The text will print in regular font and size.

 So reluctant writers don’t get bogged down every time they see the squiggly line.  Tools  options  turn off check spelling and check grammar.  Writers can then check spelling by running spell check under tools or right clicking on a misspelled word.

 Under select  Select Proofing  Check Readability Statistics  Run spell check when complete.  Will give you readability statistics and a grade level.

 The thesaurus helps refine writing as well as expose students to a multitude of new vocabulary words.  Review ribbon  Thesaurus.  Students with learning disabilities can have great difficulty looking up a word in a standard dictionary. The Word dictionary provides an instant definition for a highlighted word.  Review ribbon  Research

 Auto correct automatically corrects certain errors. It also auto corrects capitalization errors.  Within the auto correct feature, a list of common mistakes can be added to an existing “error table” and the correction can be inserted.

 Under Word Options  You can add words and use for abbreviated expansion. When you type the acronym the program will automatically fill in the words.  Name, address, etc.  Acronyms such as MVP- most valuable player  make sure the acronym you use would not be used for something else.

 Create cartoons for students or allow them to create cartoons.  Draw toolbar  Autoshapes  Callouts  Select bubble.  You can pair it with clip art cartoons.  The bubble is a text box.

 For emergent readers who need pictures with text, the pictures can be inserted anywhere in the document.  With the format painter, a word can be replaced with a picture or picture and text.

 To add a picture: Insert  picture or clip art.  To crop the picture—double click on the picture.  On the picture tool bar you can select crop tool.  From this toolbar you can also select the way you want text to wrap.  To clarify information about a picture you can add text box.

Research a topic and write a report.  Copy and paste digital text into Word.  Use the auto summarize feature (needs to be added from Word Options).  Experiment with the summary feature and choose which percentage is most appropriate for the student’s language level.  You may have to alter some of the text to include all of the information you want.

 For those needing additional writing support, a teacher can provide structured writing opportunities with templates than have prompt questions.  The students can then type their answers on the template and save their file as a document.

 To create a template for your class  Go to  new  blank document  My Template  Select Blank Template  Click Template button, then OK  Key in information  Save document  (it is saved as template)

 Microsoft Word has many templates available when opening a new blank document including letter, fax, and report templates.  Other educational templates including report templates are available online at. mplates. mplates

 Use the table feature in Word to create specially lined paper for students with handwriting challenges.

 Ruled lines could be added to a worksheet for student who have difficulty writing on a single line.  What is the fastest animal in the jungle?

 Under table in the Insert ribbon draw table- click and drag diagonally for the size and shape you want.  Select the line width. Using the pencil cursor select the location of your line. Click drag and release.  You can also select a broken line.

 Tables  Insert table  the number of columns and rows you want.  Place titles in top rows.  Put the stimulus for writing on the left.  Students respond in other columns.

 A graphic organizer  Use Shapes and Smart Art on the Insert ribbon

 Open document.  Before editing, click on Review ribbon  Track changes  Highlight changes  Select track changes while editing.  Check the 1 st box.  Check the 2 nd box.  Click on options to explore.

 Review  New Comment.  The comment is numbered and placed in a separate comment pane.  Word then highlights the text where the comment was placed.

 Microsoft Word is a powerful program.  The things you have seen here are just a few ways that it can be used to support struggling writers.  Microsoft adds new features each year that can often be used by your students.